


Of men and their baths

by Year_of_the_dragon



Category: The Order: 1886
Genre: F/M, The Order: 1866
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-03-11
Packaged: 2018-03-17 11:00:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3526757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Year_of_the_dragon/pseuds/Year_of_the_dragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Isabeau is breaking the glass ceiling of the order one day at a time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of men and their baths

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I fell in love with the game but I was hoping for more backstory for the characters so this is the first in the series of shorts. I just thought that Isi would break the glass ceiling in more way than one.

Isabeau gritted her teeth and put her hand on the door. The smell of cigars was overwhelming as she entered the steamy bath. Her back was held straight as the men’s voices came to a hault. 

This might have been a bad… She hushed the voice in her head and took a step in.

Being a woman in the order was unprecedented from what she understood, but she was too hardheaded to care. She joined to stand for truth, honor, and prove a woman could stand shoulder to shoulder with men like her brother, father, and mentor; but, one barrier proved that equality could not be achieved until she entered the final “boys club” Until this point, her washroom just like her room was sequestered far off from the rest at the end of the hall. It might have been given a title of modesty, but it was a not so hidden attempt to make the young aspiring knight to crack from isolation or so she began to believe.

She stepped deeper into the steam filled room not looking too hard anyone in particular. But all eyes were hard on her.

The baths were more than to get clean in their culture. The men would gossip as bad as scullery maids as they laid out plans all while soaking old injuries and shaving. The black water might keep them alive, but it didn’t save them from the pain. 

She stepped up and touched a copper tub. “Good evening, gentlemen. I thought I might as well catch up on the news.”

No one responded at first until, Sir Perceval, the most cankerous man she ever met spoke up first. “Miss Isabeau. I think you got lost in the corridor.” 

She gave him a glance as she turned the handle to make the water run. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell my father what you think of him.”

“He already knows that.” Galahad cut in “I think he means to say I don’t think it is appropriate for a young lady-”

“-knight” She cut in.

“Knight like yourself to bath with men.” He didn’t quite meet her eyes with that.

“I am not bathing with you. I am simply bathing and talking with my fellow knights. “ With that she turned to the wall and loosen her bathrobe. She took a deep breath and slipped it off and got into the tub without wavering. Now that unpleasantness was over she could relax. “Could you pass me a cigar?”

The men however were stunned in a frozen silence. It was expected for the Knights to be chaste and most had not seen a woman in decades and they did not know how to handle a woman , sitting in their tub, smoking their cigars. 

Galahad leaned from his tub adjacent to hers and offer her one he lit. He gave her a hard look. 

She puffed and he huffed. 

The silence was unbearable. 

“So.” She said after a minute. “What do you think of colonies? Will they send us to East India again?” 

The men blinked and Sebastian was the first to construct an answer. “Possibly, but they keep bringing the problem to us.”

The conversation slowly flowed again and she was happy not to be the elephant in the room. 

Sir Gawain picked back up his straight edge razor to finish shaving the other half of his face before the cream dried. She glanced at her mentor. All she could see above the copper tub was his strong, but tense shoulders. She brushed at her own neck before sinking into the water. 

The warm water pooled around her and cover to tops of her breast. The heat and smoke made her head swim lazily and she could understand why the men liked this. The light chatter and hum was a nice change of pace to the violence. After a long moment, she lifted a foot out of the tub to rest it on the edge and the men could see the bruises on her legs from trained.

Galahad was the first to comment. “Are those from today?” From me. He asked frowning around his cigar.

“I’m fine.” 

“It’s better he gives you those and you learn something before an Elder gives you something worse.” Percival scaffed from his tub. He was spread out like a sultan in his tub not caring if she saw his grey chest hair. It was her choice to grace them with her presence. 

“That must have been your excuse back then when King Arthur ran around to beat up a squire.” She smoothed soap down her calf and dipped her leg in water again letting the warm water unwind the tension. “Galahad. I don’t know how you put up with him. Is there anything you would have wanted to do other than being a knight?”

He furrowed his brow like the thought never crossed his mind. “I don’t think so. Or it was so long ago… Having second thoughts.”

She watched the men in their habitat. “Nope.” She sank into a comfortable silence. She never saw herself as a lord’s wife in court. “I like being a knight.” She blew a circle in the smoke. 

Isibeau could still remember hiding in nooks and crannies of the great halls watching the men training and arguing. They looked so tough and in control in polished uniforms. She had captured her imagination and she fought so hard to prove she could here too and in that moment in the tub she felt accepted. She was no longer a shadow chasing her brother, she was a knight with all the privilege. 

\---

She finished her cigar and shifted to sit up higher. “Well, gentlemen. Thank you for a lovely evening.” She rested her hand on the tub to find that Galahad already left his tub to find her a towel. He had his own waist covered and he didn’t look at her directly because apparently she was the sun.

“I think it would be best if we give you your own changing curtain.” She studied the water still dripping from the ends of his brown hair. 

“So I am invited again?” She teased securing her covering slowly. 

“I don’t think telling you ‘no’ would stop you.” He finally made eye contact giving her a slight smile. 

She turned away. “I doubt it would work too.” She pulled on the silken robe before slipping the towel off underneath. 

“I should be harder on you because you’ll never learn with that attitude.” A small swat at her rump startled her for a second before she settled at seeing what only could be described as a mischievous grin from her mentor. 

“Trust me I am learning a lot.” She danced away to the doorknob and glanced back to see he had turned his back.

“I’ll see you later.” She called as he hand touched the handle. The men groaned, but she was happy. She knew she would get hell from her father, but she happy. She was now their equal and the men could hide nothing (well nothing that couldn’t be cover by a towel). 

A/N: A little bit of fluff. I will try something more shippy next.


End file.
